CCC Camp Lake Itasca

We have some Memorabilia from the Lake Itasca Camp.

February 10 1936.  It was –52 F or –47C

This is a patch from Lake Itasca CCC the 3701 st

There are two companies called 3701.  One is inside the park with Co. 1785 and one is just outside the park with Co. 1764.

We think that Far Guy’s Dad Marvin was at Co. 3701 Co. 1764 just outside the park in 1936.  The other CCC Camp was established in 1938.

So off we went to locate the old camp.  We took a gravel road and spotted some fellows planting trees.   We asked if they knew where the old CCC Camp was?  One said “We only come up once in awhile so where that camp is would just be a guess on my part…BUT go talk to Dorothy my aunt, tell her Lyle sent you.”

We had a lovely visit with Dorothy. She was Minnesota Nice!!  It turns out that she moved to this farm in 1940.  The CCC Camp was gone, only the foundations remained.  The Camp was right on her farm.  She reminisced about how her children loved to play fort and look for relics over in the pasture.  One time they were certain they found some Indian Burial Grounds because of the bones they found…turned out they were beef bones buried near where the Cook Shack was.  Dorothy has lived there for a a gazillion years according to her nephew Lyle..it is really only 74 years.  Her husband died two years ago.  When I asked if I could take her picture she said “Sure but your camera will probably break.”

Out in the pasture where that Oak Tree is was where the old CCC Camp Company 3701 and Company 1764 were.  This old camp is right along Highway 200 on the North Side of the road…at Dorothy’s place.

So this part of our adventure is complete.  We still need to measure the mileage for the other CCC Camp down on the Hanna Ore Road and take some photos before all the leaves come on. 

We have shared the Lake Itasca Old Photo and the Patch with a fellow who is writing a book about Itasca State Park, the book is due out this spring.   I helped him gather info for his research last summer.

Wistful Wednesday : 1936 Lovelis Lake

1936 was the year that Far Guy’s Dad, Marvin was at The Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Lovelis Lake.  I wrote about our failed attempt earlier this week.

I took a photo at a display at Itasca State Park.

We needed more info!
I contacted a Facebook friend, David a High School classmate.   He responded quickly to my plea for info.  He suggested getting in touch with his cousin Robert who hunts in that area.  Later that same day we found Robert and Far Guy got a better idea of where the camp was.  In the meantime fellow blogger and researcher extraordinaire Iggy located an Oral History of a fellow who was in the CCC’s at the same time and also emailed a fellow who had visited the camp at Lovelis Lake.
We deduced that the camp was between 1/2 and 3/4 mile from Highway 113 on Anchor Matson Road.   It ended up being 3/4 mile..and guess what we saw?

Crap…we were dejected.   All this land belongs to the State but parts of it are leased.   Technically it is not private property...but…we are so close.
Far Guy pulled the car into the driveway to turn around and then I saw it.  Plain as day.

The chimney that the Historical Marker mentioned.

Back in there amongst those trees is where the camp used to be.  It is on the west side of the Anchor Matson road.
We headed over to Itasca State Park to get a season pass and to the visitors center.

Itasca State Park is not open for the season yet, but they were having school tours so we were able to visit the CCC display.  We knew this list existed because cousins Bonnie and Wayne photographed it for us last year or the year before.  I also had a copy at the Hubbard County Historical Museum.  It lists all the name of the young men that worked in the park.
There was also a map.

This time Lovelis is called Loveless.  This is the second known error in spelling.   This map also led to another adventure that I will relate someday soon.  That lake on the map just south of Lovelis Camp is really just a pothole, Lovelis Lake is North of the old CCC camp.
Finding Lovelis Lake CCC camp was not easy. We were lucky. You may say why was it important?  Only a few people know where these camps were, most of the CCC enrollees are dead.  It is a bit of history that we were able to figure out and leave behind for the next generation.
I am kind of enjoying retirement and being able to do whatever the day brings!

CCC: Lovelis Lake

Back in April we finally got to read what the entire Historic marker at Missouri Lake said about the CCC Camp that Far Guy’s Dad was at in the 1930’s.

He used to talk about his time in the CCCs.  He planted Pine trees near the walk to the Headwaters.  They made roads and cleared trails.  He was at the Lake Itasca Camp and Lovelis Lake Camp and the Camp on the Hanna Ore Trail.  We know where the camp is on the Hanna Ore Trail very near the lake we call Bottomless Lake.  The foundation can still be seen.  We are now searching for the one that was near Lovelis Lake.

Here is that Historical Marker.

Hopefully you can read the marker if you wish!  The important parts are : The Lovelis Lake Camp (S-57) was located about one mile north and slightly east of this marker.  Today all that remains of the camp itself are concrete foundations and a lone stone chimney.

Far Guy spent some time on Google Earth.  Finding Lovelis Lake was a Challenge…finally we found it under Lovelace Lake.  Someone was an idiot.

We took off to scout it out.

This is Lovelis Lake.  Far Guy walked around in the brush and picked up some Deer Ticks…the tiny fast little buggers.  We were hoping that we could see the lone chimney that the historic marker mentioned.  No luck.  We drove around just looking on different trails.

We finally saw three people working on a campsite, two knew nothing of the area and the other guy said it might be down at the T in the road.  We searched with no luck and finally headed toward home.

On our way out we saw smoke, someone was having a campfire…but this was his sign.  We didn’t venture any further.  We decided that he was probably serious about being left alone..who knows who lives back there in the woods.   I will ask around.

My inclination now is to search for a better map of the location of Lovelis Lake Camp..or find some Hunters that know the area well.  No doubt someone with hunting experience in this area knows right where it is.

In the meantime we have done all we can do. 

Wistful Wednesday: CCC Camp 1936

The Civilian Conservation Corps was part of the New Deal proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was a public relief program for unemployed men after the Great Depression. The CCC workers worked on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942. They built buildings and made roads and trails in State and National Parks.

Far Guys Dad worked in the CCC Camp at Lake Itasca in 1936. He recalled a really cold winter. The deer were starving, so they were told to distribute hay bales, the deer kept dying, but their bellies were full of hay. Deer cannot digest hay in the winter their stomachs are used to twigs and what ever else they can browse. In the spring he helped to plant trees and clear out trails around the Headwaters of the Mississippi.

This photograph was taken on February 10, 1936. On the back of the photo is the date and this notation. 52 BELOW ZERO.

I am hoping that my Grandchildren will take note of this story someday, perhaps one day when they walk across the rocks of the Headwaters on a warm day they will have a new appreciation for the cool shade of the tree lined walkway back to the parking lot:)